It Started With a Text
by WinterLake25
Summary: Jing Mei had always been the smart, quiet girl in class and a bossy, energetic girl with her large extended family. What happens when her twin and her cousin dare her to prank text one of the most obnoxious boys in their school? TaiDen,fem!IceHong, more
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: New fic! Lalalalalalala. Yeah, I need to finish Getting to Lovina and then get started on It's Not Easy Being a Nordic. I also need to work on my Harry Potter fics. But I suddenly got an awesome idea for this, so I figured that I may as well get it down.**

**Jing Mei is Taiwan, and Xiang is Hong Kong. Mari is fem!Iceland.**

**Translations at the end.**

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><p><em>Chapter 1: In Which Evil Twins and Cousins are Evil<em>

Jing Mei Wang, or rather, 王静梅, was not the type of girl to purposely go looking for trouble. In school, she was quiet and did her work, much to the delight of her weary teachers. At home, she was the bossy little sister, forever trying to make Yao be polite to Kiku and to convince Xiang to take the firecrackers out of his room. Their parents were always busy, so the Wang children were given a certain amount of freedom; unfortunately, the boys sometimes abused this privilege. Jing Mei was the one to keep them in line twenty-four seven. Unluckily for her, her cousins weren't much better than her brothers. Yong Soo was probably one of her biggest headaches. The Korean boy's propensity for groping people of both genders at all times was extremely disconcerting and beyond annoying.

It should not have been a surprise to Jing Mei when her twin and her perverted cousin decided to gang up on her.

Jing Mei was enjoying a nice cup of Puer tea when the two boys made their way into her room and onto her bed. She glared at them as they purposely messed up her sheets. Xiang just stared back at her emotionlessly as Yong Soo smirked with a wink. Extremely aggravated, she threw her shoe at her cousin.

"Mei Mei!"

"What?"

"Why did you throw that shoe at me?"

Jing Mei rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.

"Shouldn't you guys be busy somewhere else?"

"Nah," replied Xiang, flicking open his cell phone to see if he had any new texts. "Mari's at home helping Nora cook something. She hasn't even texted me. Yao is running away from that weird Russian girl again."

"Yup," chirped Yong Soo, playing catch with one of Jing Mei's pillows. "And Aniki Kang Dae is at his piano lesson. So we're here to annoy you."

"What about Kiku?"

"She's with those two weirdo friends of hers. You know, that one freshman obsessed with pasta and the other neat freak blondie?"

Jing Mei was at her wit's end. She glared harder at her twin.

"翔，你没有别的事情做吗？"

He shrugged. "我的朋友都很忙。我的功课也做完了。"

"但是我也很忙。你不能去找哥哥吗？那个女孩已经走了吧？"

"Hey!" cried out Yong Soo indignantly, mad at being ignored. "I don't speak Mandarin!"

The twins ignored him, immersed in their own conversation.

"Hey!"

They finally turned to look at him, Jing Mei with obvious annoyance and Xiang with well-disguised contempt.

"Let's play a game!" Yong Soo replied quickly, panicked at the sight of the aggravated twins.

"Let me finish my homework first…"

"You already finished."

Jing Mei glared at Xiang, who was leafing through the papers on her desk.

"You were just drawing flowers."

"That was for Art!"

"You don't even take Art."

"GUYS!" whined Yong Soo.

"Fine!" Jing Mei threw her hands up in frustration.

"Awesome!" declared Yong Soo. "Xiang and I get to take turns asking you questions and daring you to do things."

"WHAT?" squawked Jing Mei, getting onto her feet. "Xiang!"

"是他的主意。"

"You're the worst brother ever!"

"谢谢，姐姐。"

"Okay! Let's start."

Jing Mei got back in her chair while continuing to glower at the two teenagers on her bed. Xiang was still as emotionless as ever, although Jing Mei could tell that he was gloating on the inside. Yong Soo, on the other hand, was showing his triumphant gleefully.

"Ok, first one, Mei Mei. Do you have a crush on anyone?"

The irate girl rolled her eyes. "You're such a girl, Yong Soo. Of course not. I'm too busy for a boyfriend."

The two boys shared a look that gave Jing Mei an intensely suspicious feeling.

"好，静梅。Are you lesbian?"

"你脑子有问题吗？"

Xiang waved it off. "It was his idea."

"No! Of course I'm not! That's totally absurd, you idiots."

Yong Soo grinned widely. "Just making sure. Now…"

The two cousins conferred quietly as Jing Mei watched on with growing unease. She knew the two to be brilliant plot hatchers when they actually put their minds together. She had had to clean up a million of their messes in the past.

"Ok, Mei Mei. Last one. We DARE you to prank text someone, and it has to be anyone we say."

"No."

"You'll have to do something embarrassing if you don't agree."

"Like what, you pervert?"

"Go to school in only your underwear," replied Xiang with a straight face.

Jing Mei gaped at him. "You wouldn't."

His eyes glittered mischievously. "I would."

The twins stared at each other for two minutes straight as their cousin looked between the two of them excitedly.

"Fine," Jing Mei agreed reluctantly.

"Manshe!" whooped Yong Soo, jumping into the air. "Who should it be Xiang-Muffin?"

The other boy was rapidly texting away on his face. Without missing a beat, he replied, "I'm asking Mari. She likes this idea and she has the perfect candidate in mind, apparently."

Anyone associated with her brother's unofficial girlfriend was enough to force Jing Mei under her bed in embarrassment. To start with, Mari's own sister was a bit weird. Nora was really into mystical creatures and folklore. Even Nora's boyfriend was insanely into it. After the sister, there were the friends. One was a nice blonde girl who was a junior who seemed innocent enough; however, rumor had it that she was one fearsome creature when angered. The blonde's boyfriend was the most intimidating person in the school after Yao's stalker. Finally, there was an obnoxious junior boy with spiky hair, a dense head, and an incorrigible attitude. If Jing Mei had to prank one of them, she was doomed.

"Yup. She's got it. Here's the number, Jing Mei."

Jing Mei peeked at the slip of paper her brother had handed her.

"Anders Densen? Which one is he?"

"The obnoxious one."

"Hey!" protested Yong Soo. "He's one of my buddies!"

"Exactly why," countered Xiang."

"But what if he figures out this is my number?"

"He won't. No one he talks to knows your number. Except maybe Yong Soo."

"And I won't tell," he announced proudly.

Jing Mei just sighed and grabbed her cell phone. "If I get humiliated, you guys are never hearing the end of this."

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><p><strong>AN: Translations time!**

**翔，你没有别的事情做吗？- Xiang, don't you have anything else to do?**

**我的朋友都很忙。我的功课也做完了。- My friends are really busy. I also finished my homework.**

**但是我也很忙。你不能去找哥哥吗？那个女孩已经走了吧？- But I'm really busy too. Can't you go find big brother? That's girl's gone now, right?**

**是他的主意。- It was his idea.**

**谢谢，姐姐。- Thanks big sister.**

**好，静梅。- Ok, Jing Mei.**

**你脑子有问题吗？- Is there something wrong with your head?**

**I speak fluent Chinese, so unless you feel that it could be translated differently, I'm pretty confident that I've translated it pretty well.**

**So this is also part Nyotalia. Here are the genderbents:**

**N. Italy**

**Romano**

**America**

**Iceland**

**Norway**

**Finland**

**Prussia**

**Austria**

**Hungary**

**Poland**

**Japan**

**Belarus**

**Russia**

**France**

**Estonia**

**I'll reveal the pairings that are so far in this fic:**

**IceHong**

**GerIta**

**And Norway is with everyone's favorite character…**

**You'll have to guess. ^^ Winner gets a commission from me. But it should be pretty obvious. First come, first serve. ^^**

**And yes, it will be eventually DenTai.**

**And Puer tea is a type of Chinese tea. It's known for its strong flavor and color.**

**If you liked this chapter, then I would recommend that you check out my other ongoing fic Getting to Lovina. It's also a schoolfic, but it's set in a private international academy, whereas this one is set in modern American high school.**

**Thanks!**

**Reviewers get scones. ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: To address the issue of Xiang speaking Mandarin:**

**He's speaking Mandarin because:**

**I don't know any Cantonese and I was too lazy to look any up. xD**

**While he is technically Hong Kong, he's part of a Chinese family in this fic. Thus, he's speaking Mandarin. It's the official language of China, and Hong Kong is supposedly part of China.**

**So that could be why.**

**And in addition, the characters are simplified for the same reason. They're all technically Chinese American. I'm not trying to say that Taiwan and Hong Kong aren't able in their own right; I'm just trying to make the story work.**

**They're in America, and they've emigrated there. Unless one parent speaks Cantonese and the other speaks Mandarin, usually the family is pretty uniform with languages. If one parent can only speak one and the other the other language, then I believe they just all speak English to each other. It's how it works in one of my friend's family.**

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><p><span>Chapter 2: In Which the Real Fun Begins<span>

Yong Soo and Xiang looked at Jing Mei eagerly as she hesitated in her typing.

"What's wrong, Mei Mei?"

For someone who was already seventeen, Yong Soo had a complete baby face. Unfortunately for Jing Mei, his pouts and puppy eyes were still as effective as they were when they were all little children. Xiang watched in amusement as Jing Mei glared half-heartedly at Yong Soo.

"Your face, you idiot."

She laughed at his look of pure terror. Yong Soo rushed to the nearest mirror possible, trying to talk himself into relative calmness. Xiang laughed lightly at his narcissistic cousin's antics are as Jing Mei took a sigh and thought about what to text.

"你想好了吗?"

"还没有。"

"Hey! Don't start speaking Mandarin when I'm not there!"

The irritated Korean was back, and he decided to place himself on the floor right at Jing Mei's feet.

"I know what you should text!"

Before Jing Mei could even register what Yong Soo was doing, the slippery boy had taken the phone out of her hands. Jing Mei was about to protest when she saw that Yong Soo had already sent a message to Anders Densen's phone.

"Yong Soo, what did you do?"

"I sent a message for you, da ze!"

Jing Mei immediately checked the "sent" folder of her texts to see what her perverted cousin had sent.

_Heya anders Densen ;-)_

"YONG SOO!"

"What?"

"Couldn't you have done something more interesting?"

"Nah."

Jing Mei just slapped Yong Soo on the back of his head. The immature junior immediately began to whine about "Mei Mei's" abuse as the irritated girl just snorted and rolled her eyes. Xiang watched them bicker with well concealed amusement, looking away from the duo only to sent texts to Mari.

Just as the teasing was getting to dangerous subjects, Jing Mei's phone buzzed.

"Hey guys, you know Anders just replied, right?"

Almost immediately, the two hyper Asians began to fight over possession of the phone. After much tickling, smacking, and accidental groping, Jing Mei victoriously flipped open her phone as Yong Soo groaned beneath her. Xiang eyed his red-faced twin warily.

"Was it really necessary to sit on his back?"

"Of course! He groped me."

"It was NOT on purpose! I don't feel like claiming your breasts!"

"Whatever."

Xiang surreptitiously glanced over his twin's shoulder to see what Anders Densen had responded with.

_hej who r u? _

"What are you going to respond with? Are you going to scare him, or are you going to just send him random crap?"

Jing Mei smoothed her hair back as she smiled deviously.

"You'll see."

_ I found your flowery boxers. They were under your bed._

Yong Soo had finally squirmed his way out from being Jing Mei's cushion. As he and Xiang snuck a glance at what Jing Mei had send Anders, nearly identical evil grins appeared on their faces.

"Jing Mei, I didn't know you were so interested in underwear."

"Xiang-muffin, Mei Mei has grown up!"

"You guys!"

"Mari says that Anders is apparently freaking out. He's at their house for dinner."

Before anyone could say anything else, Jing Mei's phone rang again.

_r u some kinda perv? thats not cool :-(_

"This is where the real fun starts," remarked Xiang dryly.

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><p>Mari was surprised to note that her usually stoic and emotionless sister was having trouble keeping a straight face as they watched Anders have spasm attacks at the weird text messages he was receiving.<p>

"Are you ok, Nora?"

There was an evil and mischievous glint in the older girl's eyes. This was a look that Mari had only seen in her sister when the blonde was in a mood to bend a few rules to inflict suffering upon others. Usually that would be Anders, but occasionally, it was Arthur as well. But mostly Anders.

"It's fun to see the idiot like this."

Just as Mari was about to reply, the doorbell rang. Nora very calmly rose to open the door. It did not surprise Mari that Arthur Kirkland was standing there, face completely red as he gave her sister a bouquet of flowers.

"These are for you…I thought it'd be a gentlemanly thing to do, since your parents invited me to dinner and all."

Nora gave him a look that clearly said "I thank you for the flowers, and I know just what you're thinking, but if you do this again, I will kill you."

"Nora? Is Arthur here? Oh! It is nice to see you, Arthur! Please come in."

"NOOOOOOOORA! THE CREEPER TEXTED ME AGAIN!"

Everyone in the room (that being Anders' parents, Nora and Mari's parents, Nora and Mari themselves, and of course, everyone's favorite bushy-browed Brit) turned to stare at Anders.

"Is he quite alright?" asked Arthur tentatively. Although he was slightly jealous of how close Nora and Anders were, he was on semi-decent terms with the crazy blonde.

"Mari set up someone to prank text him," Nora whispered into Arthur's ear. "It's actually very amusing. I haven't seen him this insane for ages."

Arthur's abnormally thick eyebrows drew together in a frown as he contemplated what Nora had just said.

"Nora, darling, are you sure that is all right? I don't think the poor bloke is going to be very happy when he finds the culprit."

The blonde Brit watched in slight fascination and impending fear as a devious smirk transfigured itself onto his girlfriend's face.

"Didn't I tell you? We're trying to set him up with someone who's equally lonely at the moment."

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><p><em> i dont like this who r u<em>

Jing Mei sat with her forehead resting upon the back of her chari as the two boys watched her continuing her efforts to prank Anders. Yao wasn't home yet, so the Wang siblings weren't even close to eating dinner. Yong Soo was technically supposed to be home at this point, but he had managed to convince his parents that the academically strong Xiang was tutoring him in pre-calc. Somehow the fact that Xiang was a sophomore taking Algebra II didn't quite register with their aunt and uncle, so Yong Soo was still here, sitting in Jing Mei's room while chomping down on some leftover kimchi and rice from his lunch.

Xiang was eating as well, although he made no sound while chewing through his buns. He had offered Jing Mei some, but his twin was too absorbed in her current project to be eating.

_I also know where you are hiding your old stuffed teddy bear. I bet you still snuggle it at night when you're scared._

Xiang had been chatting with Mari earlier in the day about Jing Mei while the two of them had been eating lunch together.

"How's Jing Mei these days?"

Xiang had shrugged, saying something along the lines of, "Oh fine," "Still the same," etc.

"I think she looks kind of lonely," Mari had commented.

Xiang had looked at her in bewilderment. So he wasn't the only one who had noticed.

"Xiang-muffin! Your-"

"No, Yong Soo, they belong to me."

"But Maaaari…"

"No."

"What were you guys saying about Mei Mei?"

"Nothing."

"Please?"

The couple stared emotionlessly at Yong Soo's convincing pout. Xiang gave up first, earning him a hug from his cousin.

"She looks kind of lonely."

Mari tilted her head slightly in thought as the cousins calmed down. Xiang watched her eyes light up as she had an idea.

"We could set her up."

"With who?" begged Yong Soo, suddenly excited again.

"Anders."

"Why him?" asked Xiang, raising an eyebrow at Mari. The pale-haired girl chuckled at his look.

"Admit it. Jing Mei's really bossy and Anders needs to be bossed around. This could end up nicely."

"Da ze!" grinned Yong Soo, pumping his fist in the air. "I've got a plan."

And so now, Xiang thought, Everything is in motion. I just hope this turns out well for Jing Mei's sake.

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><p><strong><span>AN: And yes, it has begun. I won't be following every text that's sent, but I hope you get the general idea of what Jing Mei's going to send Anders. And yes, she's going to start off by sending him creeper texts.**

**And the next chapter is in planning stages!**

**And Tanoshimi won! Yes, Nora's boyfriend is Arthur. xD**

**EDIT: I FORGOT TRANSLATIONS! *GASP***

**"你想好了吗?" - Have you thought of any?**

**"还没有。" - Not yet.**

** And go send fem!Iceland letters in my story, Dear Iceland, in which Iceland answers your letters for questions and advice. Reviewers over in that story get cookies!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I should be plowing all of weekend hw from being sick, but I'm being incredibly lazy and slacking. xD But hey, can you blame me? I've been coughing up phlegm and blowing out snot. Great description, I know. But anyhow, I'm too sick and depressed to be doing homework, so I'm just writing fanfiction instead. xD So enjoy!**

**Oh, and I don't own much here.**

**And Tanoshimi, I am working on that TaiNet oneshot. I'm getting there! I promise to get it published by the end of this week. **

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><p><span>Chapter 3: In which Anders is Confused (Adorably So)<span>

Anders Densen was by no means a dumb person. He was just incredibly, amazing dense. Along with freshmen Amelia F. Jones and Alice Vargas, and senior Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, he was one of the most thick-headed people in the school. None of them could read the atmosphere. Subtle hints and careful implications were lost on the four of them, much to the chagrin of their friends. Berwald and Nora, in particular, were extremely agitated and amused by just how dense he could be. Mari was usually indifferent, but she enjoyed taking jabs at him. Tina was too amiable to care, unless Anders had particularly irritated her. The rest of the school population (minus a great deal of freshmen, of course) was used to seeing the hyperactive Dane rush around the school while proclaiming loudly in Danish and hugging people on a random urge.

So although the Danish boy in question had missed the sly smirks of Nora, Mari, and Xiang, coupled with Arthur's uncertainty and Yong Soo's more-extreme-than-normal hyperness, Berwald and Tina didn't. The tall Swede and his petite girlfriend had sensed trouble brewing since the day Anders came wailing, WAILING, to them about how some random creeper was texting him. In fact, Berwald had figured out immediately that Mari had something to do about it. After all, the platinum blonde had never really liked the obnoxious Dane; it would be an understatement to say that she disliked him. When Berwald very subtly brought this up to Tina, she had caught on as well.

So two days after Anders had begun receiving creeper texts, the duo confronted Mari. Berwald, having known Nora, Mari, and Anders for pretty much all his life, felt that Mari would be easier to crack than Nora. Tina agreed with him, since she had the unpleasant experience of being glared at by Nora for trying to pry something out of her.

"Hey Mari! How's it going?"

The girl shrugged, flipping to another page of her book. The cheerful blonde usually had no visible effect on her mood.

"We w'nt t' t'lk t'ya."

"About…"

"Would you happen to know anything about who's texting Anders?"

"No."

The couple looked at each other. Tina winked, signifying that they were moving to plan B. However, just as they were about to use their most effective method of coercing information from Mari, an Asian boy with an unfathomable expression appeared with a similar looking, but much more lively Asian girl at his side. And appeared that they were bickering in Chinese.

"哎呀， 翔， 我不想做啦！ 他知到了就很尴尬。"

"但是这很好笑。你很久没有放松了。这说不定是一件好事。"

"我真的不懂男孩子！"

"谢谢。"

"Hi Xiang."

Tina and Berwald watched in amusement as the two Asians joined them at the table which had earlier had been occupied by Mari only. The boy exchanged a brief hug with Mari. Automatically, Mari leaned against him, and the boy nonchalantly looked over her shoulder to see what she was reading.

"You know, you should talk to Mei. She's thinking of backing out."

Mari raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought Yong Soo and Xiang threatened you with stealing all of your clothes so that you would have to come to school in nothing but your underwear."

Tina now recognized the boy as Xiang, Mari's sort of boyfriend, and the girl as Jing Mei, Xiang's twin. She looked to see if Berwald had realized this as well. As it turned out, it seemed that Berwald had really caught on.

"Yer s'ttin' y'r b'yfr'end on 'nd'rs, 'ren't ya?"

"No," replied Mari calmly. Jing Mei fiddled nervously with the strings of her hoodie.

Suddenly, Tina's eyes lit up and she began to bounce on the balls of her feet excitedly. Berwald looked to Tina in bewilderment, but once he saw the expression on Tina's face, he began smile. Or as well as someone with his gruff demeanor could.

"I know! Mari, you're having Jing Mei prank Anders, aren't you? I knew it! That is a BRILLIANT idea! Absolutely brilliant!"

Jing Mei nearly fell out of her chair in shock. Identical devious expressions appeared on Mari and Xiang's faces as they quickly began to think of ways to take advantage of this new development.

"Ber-Bear, do you have any good blackmail on Anders? Please?"

If it was one thing Berwald absolutely could not resist, it was Tina's smoldering puppy face. Her big violet eyes would water slightly and her delicate mouth would form itself into a pout. His face softened as he blushed profusely.

"Mmmm."

"Thank you! I have the best plan ever!"

Jing Mei, Xiang, and Mari watched on awkwardly as Tina tackled Berwald in a bear hug while chattering happily about how brilliant her plan was going to be. Jing Mei shot her twin and his girlfriend a venomous look as the two smirked at her.

"Well, 姐姐，I think there is absolutely no way for you to get out of this now."

"Yes!" tittered Tina happily, handing her a piece of paper, "Here's Berwald's number and mine! Make sure to text us after school so we can give you some information to scare Anders with! This is going to be so much fun!"

Jing Mei took the paper helplessly as Tina beamed at her. "Um, thanks, I guess."

"No problems!"

Just as Jing Mei was about to make her escape, a certain Korean boy caught her eye.

"勇洙,你给我回来！你这个笨蛋，我真的是被你气死啦！我以后一定要报仇！"

"Aniki! Mei Mei is after meeeeeeee!"

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><p>Meanwhile, Anders was ranting in Danish to Nora.<p>

"Lort, det her er vildt uhyggeligt! Hvad nu hvis det er en pædofil? Hvad nu hvis det er en lærer? Nora, hjælp mig!"

"Calm down idiot. People are watching."

Nora was getting a massive headache. Anders was taking the whole "OMG there's a creeper TEXTING me" thing way too far. People around them were giving them funny looks. No wonder Arthur had excused himself to eat lunch elsewhere.

"Hey Nora, something wrong with Denny here?"

Nora turned to see her friend Erika looking on with amusement. She shrugged.

"Eh. Nothing much. I wouldn't worry about it. He has spasm attacks often."

"NOTHING MUCH! NOT COOL, NORGE!"

Nora rolled her eyes. "I'm going to eat with Erika and whoever else she's eating with. Go yell at Gillian or Yong Soo."

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Nora smacked him on the head. With a final whimper, he shut up and went to find someone else to whine to. It seemed that his best friend was no use in desperate times like this. Maybe he could go find Yong Soo to whine too. After all, Gillian was probably with Francine, Antonio, and that one invisible kid planning some new amazing stunt to pull off.

However, Yong Soo found him before he could find the energetic Korean.

"Gyaaaaaah! Anders, my insane cousin is going to murder me! Hide me!"

Before Anders could reply, a petite Asian girl came power walking down across the plaza, huffing angrily as her eyes scanned the crowd.

"There you are! I'm not letting you get away until you retract that stupid dare!"  
>"Gotta go! Bye!"<p>

And thus, Anders was left in a shocked daze as the two Asians rushed past him. When he finally shook himself out of it, the one thing he could remember was the fierce look in the girl's eyes.

"Dude! I have a totally unawesome assignment for the totally unawesome English class. Ya wanna be the partner of awesome me for it?"

"Do you know her name?"

Gillian looked confused. She knocked Ander's forehead a few times with her fist. "You ok? It's unawesome not to listen to me."

"Hey Gilly, do you know the name of the girl just passed by?"

"That Asian chick? Sure! She's Kiku's cousin. You know, mein bruder's asian friend who's total geek like him, but really awesome anyways? She's also Mattie's friend. I think her name's Jing Mei or something awesomely Asian like that."

"Who's Mattie?"

"Gott, why does no one know who he is!"

And for what seemed like the billionth time that day, Anders Densen was left in a daze. He need to talk to Lars if the other boy's insane girlfriend wasn't around. Maybe his other SUPER BEST FRIEND would have some awesome advice, unlike Nora or Gillian or Berwald or Yong Soo or…

Gah. Screw the rest.

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><p><strong>AN: Poor Anders. xD Here are the translations:**

**"哎呀， 翔， 我不想做啦！ 他知到了就很尴尬。" – Ugh, Xiang, I don't want to do it anymore! It'll get really awkward if he knows.**

**"但是这很好笑。你很久没有放松了。这说不定是一件好事。" – But this is really funny. You haven't relaxed in a long time. This might be a good thing.**

**"我真的不懂男孩子！" – I don't understand boys!**

**"谢谢。" – Thanks**

**姐姐 – Big sister**

**"勇洙, 你给我回来！你这个笨蛋，我真的是被你气死啦！我以后一定要报仇！"- Get back here, Yong Soo! I'm getting really pissed by you, you idiot! I will definitely get revenge in the future!**

**Once again, I speak fluent Mandarin, so unless you feel like I could have translated better, there should be no mistakes.**

**And the Danish:**

**"Lort, det her er vildt uhyggeligt! Hvad nu hvis det er en pædofil? Hvad nu hvis det er en lærer? Nora, hjælp mig!" - Holy crap, this is really scary! What if this person is a pedophile? What if it's a teacher? Nora, help!**

**And I had a Danish person translate this for me as well. ^^ Thanks Someone-you-do-not-know!**

**So I'm sorry if the SuFin part was really cheesy. They're a hard couple to write, just like GerIta. I hope Tina wasn't too OOC.**

**Oh, and Erika is fem!Romania. I'm really glad there's an official Romania now!**

**And Francine is fem!France, and Gillian is fem!Prussia.**

**Lars is Netherlands.**

**If you're unsure about other characters, let me know!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So why have I been so inactive?**

**Long story short (since I already scared away people with my angsty note on Getting to Lovina), I suffered extreme stress and depression for a long period of time. It was horribly debilitating, and I just did not have the strength to write anything. But I'm mostly recovered now, and I intend to get farther with my fics.**

**Chiara = fem!Romano**

**Disclaimer: I own this as much as I own the moon.**

**And in case you didn't know, the italics are usually the texts. I hope it's clear who wrote what.**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 4: In Which Different Talks are Held<em>

Jing Mei returned home that day from school with a great deal of Algebra and another load of Chemistry, feeling disgruntled and irritated. The feelings only grew more pungent when she entered her room. She was not pleased to find Xiang, Mari, and Yong Soo all lounging there. Her eye twitched slightly as she set her things down in their designated spots. The trio in her room simply gazed at her blandly. A vein popped in her forehead.

"What happened to personal privacy?"

"That's an illusion da ze! And illusion originated in…"

"NO," the other three interrupted loudly. Yong Soo pouted like a child deprived of sweets. He even teared up a little when they continued to disregard him.

"But seriously. Why are you here? Don't you have homework to do?"

"Have you texted Tina or Berwald yet?" asked Xiang, ignoring her demands. "You really should get some of the blackmail out of them, you know."

"No. I just got home. Speaking of which, how did you get home before me?"

"What have you been texting Anders lately?" continued Xiang, as if Jing Mei had said nothing.

Jing Mei sighed, blowing her abnormally long ahoge out of her face. "It's only been the third day since you've given me his number. And I've still been sending him creeper texts, so stop bothering me."

"Maybe you should stop with the creeper texts," suggested Xiang.

"I thought you _wanted_ me to freak him out. Why are you suddenly telling me to stop?"

Mari smirked. "The big Danish idiot is getting too concerned. I'm afraid that he might notify the authorities or change his number. Of course, I've gotten his parents in on it too, so they're doing their best to keep him calm. Nora's beside herself with glee, so my parents are also in on everything that's going on. Oh, if Nora has to do with anything, then so does Arthur. Based on the events of today, I will assume that 'Ber-Bear' and Tina are in full support. He won't be able to figure exactly who you are, but there's still a chance he might become desperate."

Jing Mei blinked. Mari did not usually enjoying chattering, so the long speech from the other girl was a bit of shock for the Asian. Her infuriatingly smug twin, of course, was smirking at her with great amusement. Jing Mei turned crimson, trying to think of an intelligent response.

"And of course, your Yong-Soo oppa is in full support too!"

Jing Mei sent Yong Soo a look that could curdle dairy within a nanosecond. The Korean boy shrank behind Xiang. Mari simply acted as if nothing had occurred.

"Anyhow," continued Mari, "I think would be best that you send him a few more creeper texts today, and then Xiang will give you the plan layout for Plan B."

"And of course, if you don't follow along, you might find your favorite hoodie missing," finished Xiang.

Jing Mei gasped. "You wouldn't. Not the panda."

Xiang nodded. "You bet I would."

Internal conflict ensued within Jing Mei for five minutes as they all sat around in awkward silence.

"Ugh. Fine. But you need to get OUT of my room right now."

* * *

><p><em>Hello again.<em>

_lort ur that one creeper_

_ It's not exactly nice to refer to me like that._

_ then what am i supposed to call u_

_ Uh…We can figure that part out later._

Jing Mei's phone buzzed again. She tore her eyes away from the Algebra problem she was attacking. Wearily, she picked it up and flipped it open, expecting to see a reply from Anders. Instead, she got a reply from Berwald.

_'ello Jing Mei. Do not let Anders know that I told you this: He still has a entire set of Viking plushies from his childhood and he has a shrine for them_

_ Thank you Berwald_

_ Don't mention it…It was a favor for Tina. _

Jing Mei chortled. Of course. The stoic blonde was a gigantic teddy bear when it came to anything concerning Tina. No wonder the petite girl referred to him as "Ber-Bear." Just as she was think it, her phone buzzed again.

_Oh, and by the way, this is a little bit of revenge for myself. In his sleep, he used to droll and mumble about how jealous he was of Arthur._

_ I'll keep that in mind._

Just as Jing Mei was about to pick up her pencil to begin on the accursed Algebra, her phone buzzed once more. She started at the noise, but once she realized what it was, she just groaned into her arms.

_if i cant call you creeper then imma call you…wait, r u a boy or a girl?_

_ That is a good question. Considering that you have a shrine of Viking plushies, it's very funny that you ask._

"妹妹! 吃饭啦!"

"好! 我马上来!"

Jing Mei massaged her cramped hands. Just as she was about to leave her room for dinner, her phone buzzed again.

_waldo? this isn't funny man_

_ Sorry Anders. I am not Berwald. I've also heard stories about how you droll in your sleep. Try not to sleeptalk. You let out many secrets that way. Like your jealousy of Arthur._

Jing Mei stretched, placed her phone in the pocket of her sweats, and then headed down for dinner. Yao had already set the table, and Xiang was already sitting down. She offered her brothers a half-smile.

"How goes?" he greeted.

Jing Mei shrugged indifferently.

"Moving on the Plan B soon?" she asked. Xiang shrugged and reached across the table for some bok choy.

"Maybe. I think you should creepily bid him good-bye tonight and then we'll move on."

Jing Mei had sat down now, and she was also chomping on the delectable vegetables. Yao was still bustling around the kitchen, putting pans in the sink and replacing unused ingredients. He hummed as it worked, completely oblivious to her troubles. Jing Mei thought he looked hilarious with a pink frilly apron on as he worked merrily. It made her think of their cheery old grandmother. Jing Mei wasn't always on the best of terms with her elder brother, but she was still fond of him, in a way.

"好吃吗?"

Yao had finished in the kitchen and was now sitting down at the table with them. He smiled brightly at his younger siblings, expecting them to agree.

"当然咯. 哥哥还是一个好厨师," she obliged.

"哈哈. 谢谢."

'I might as well just take life as it comes,' thought Jing Mei as the three siblings ate together like every other night. 'At the very least, I should stop feeling so nervous about this whole pranking thing. We'll all forget about it soon, and Xiang, Mari, and Yong Soo will leave me alone.'

* * *

><p>Lars stared glumly at the wall of his room. Said room was, at the moment, occupied by two blonde juniors sitting on the floor: one being Lars himself, and the other being the most frustrating human being on the surface of the earth. As the human being continued to whine indignantly, Lars fiddled with the bottom drawer of his desk.<p>

"I'm telling you man, totally NOT AWESOME!"

Anders had just finished his entire "There is a creeper texting me" rant and was not looking at Lars expectantly. The scarred blond sighed visibly and rubbed his temples. He did not feel like dealing with Anders today. Chiara was mad at him (again), and Lars was more interested in making up with his temperamental girlfriend than in hearing about Ander's stalker. He finally just stopped up and stretched.

The hyperactive Dane began to bounce in his seat, anticipating some form of sympathy.

"Densen. You're overreacting."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

Lars rolled his eyes as the other boy began to whine and flash him puppy eyes.

"But Lars, this so serious! How can I be overreacting?"

"Shit, man. Relax. Just stop texting them back and they'll stop."

"I…I didn't think of that."

The Dutch boy's eye twitched in annoyance. Trust Anders to completely overlook the easiest solution.

"Hey bastard, you forgot this."

Speak of the devil. Chiara Vargas had just stuck her head into the doorframe of his room. In her outstretched hand lay his house key. Specifically, his house keep which had gone missing two weeks ago.

Without missing a beat, he took the key from her hand and kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks, Bunny. I guess I owe you one," he smirked, his expression still mostly stoical.

Chiara blushed and punched his shoulder. "Sh-shut up, idiot. I'm not going to care next time. I have to go home and take care of my idiot sister and my stupid old grandpa. Ciao, bastardo."

Anders watched in confusion as the irate Italian girl left.

"Dude, are you guys seriously a couple?"

Lars's quirked a wry grin. "Each to his own. She takes care of me, and I take care of her. Win-win."

Anders tilted his head slightly, still not comprehending Lar's words. The Dutch boy rolled his eyes and gestured towards the door.

"Get home, Densen, and stop freaking out."

* * *

><p><em>Tonight is the last time I speak to you. Don't wilt under your pretty red blankets. You'll wake up to a new experience tomorrow. Without me, regrettably. But I have found a new target.<em>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Annnnnnnnd they are changing tactics very rapidly. In the next chapter, you'll experience more new characters. ^^ And poor, poor Anders. **

**Does anyone want a Magic Trio cameo?**

**I hope I didn't make Yao too OOC. I picture him as being the sort of matronly oldest brother, and he really loves his siblings. To be honest, I think he even has a soft spot for Yong Soo.**

**And yes. fem!Romano is dating the Netherlands. I said there would be uncommon pairings.**

**SO I hope you enjoyed this!**

**Here are translations:**

"**妹妹****! ****吃饭啦****!" – "Little sister! Time to eat!"**

"**好****! ****我马上来****!" – "Ok! I'm coming right away!"**

"**好吃吗****?" – "Does it taste good?"**

"**当然咯****. ****哥哥还是一个好厨师****." – "Of course. Big brother is still a good cook."**

"**哈哈****. ****谢谢****." – "Haha. Thanks."**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey guys! If you read Getting to Lovina, then you know that I said I would be taking a break from writing. Well, that break ended up lasting a loooooot longer than I expected. But now I'm back. And I'm going to finish this fic.**

**I'm not completely sure how long this well end up being. I am sure, however, that it will not surpass twenty chapters. This is a rather light and fluffy fic, so everything's going to go by pretty quickly, I think. It's not seriously enough to last too long.**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 5: In Which An Awkward Week Passes By, pt 1<em>

Jing Mei's eye twitched as she read the paper Xiang had handed her. It was already Thursday afternoon.

"Excuse me?"

Yong Soo grinned. "What, Mei Mei?"

Jing Mei scowled and thrust the paper into his face. The Korean boy had been a part of the planning, but in order to humor his cousin, he read it once more. The crumpled and well-word piece of binder paper read:

_Plan B_

_ Option 1: Tell Anders the truth. You were pranked/dared into prank-texting him. _

_ Option 2: Text Anders again as yourself, pretending that someone stole your phone. _

_ Option 3: Ask him out._

"No," Jing Mei ground out stubbornly. "No WAY."

Xiang smirked. "It's not like you have a choice."

Jing Mei glared. "Why did I ever get myself into this situation?"

Yong Soo grinned. "Because you love us, Mei Mei! You have exactly one week to decide what to do!"

The two boys looked on in amusement as Jing Mei groaned and buried her face into her hands. The Asian girl was annoyed beyond her limit.

"Fine."

* * *

><p>Friday:<p>

Jing Mei was glad that it was the end of the week. Her weekly Friday quizzes and her Chapter tests that her teachers had thrown at her had all gone relatively well, and Jing Mei hoped that she had aced them. She had always been a 4.0 student, but she still felt awfully nervous about her grades. Because of Xiang's slightly delinquent behavior, his grades teetered precariously between astounding and less than perfect to their parents. Thus, they expected Jing Mei to uphold the dignity of the Wang family. Yao was a good enough child, and nearly at the top of his class, but his annoyance and dislike of English classes resulted in his only B.

"Mei!"

Jing Mei smiled when she saw Laura Jansen waving at her. She was just grabbing her things from her locker for the weekend when her friend had nabbed her attention.

"Laura! How are you doing?"

The blonde freshman had been good friends with Jing Mei for many years. Despite being a year younger than Jing Mei, Laura had found her way behind Jing Mei's walls of solitude and into the older girl's heart. Jing Mei was a bit bossy, but she was still a rather nervous person at times. Laura boosted up Jing Mei's confidence with her cheery chatter and relaxed demeanor.

"I'm great! Wanna go see a movie?

Jing Mei tugged at her shirt nervously. The gesture went unnoticed by Laura, who as still beaming happily at the girl.

"Uh…Who's going?"

"Oh, not too many people! Don't worry Jing Mei! It's just a few of our friends and a few of my brother's friends. It really shouldn't be too many people. C'mon, Jing Mei, it's a Friday! You've gotta let loose and have some fun."

"Oh, I don't know," Jing Mei mumbled nervously. "I, uh, might have a few chores I need to finish."

Suddenly, Laura's smile wilted. She put her hands on Jing Mei's shoulders. "Mei, are you scared?"

_Oh crap,_ thought Jing Mei. _I'm caught._

"Heh…Of course not."

"Then why won't you come?"

"Uh…"

"That's it. I'm NOT taking no for an answer. You're coming."

And with, that, Jing Mei found herself unceremoniously dragged to Laura's house, where the blonde girl forced her to try on various outfits. Jing Mei was partially scandalized by the girl's choices, but she had to choose one of the outfits anyways. Jing Mei wondered how in the world Laura had managed to get into her closet without Yao or Xiang noticing. In fact, Jing Mei was wondering how Laura had found out about the stash of clothing Jing Mei never wore.

"You look wonderful!" squealed Laura.

Jing Mei studied herself in the mirror. She was clad in a knee-length, dark-green dress and black mary janes. She fidgeted with the nice, off-white jacket which Laura had paired with dress as she tugged at her hair. It felt weird to have her hair in a French braid, of all things. Laura had tried to apply make-up on her face, but Jing Mei put her foot down. She was NOT going to wear make-up to the movies, of all places.

Laura, of course, was dressed, as well. The beaming girl was wearing a light blue skirt along with a white blouse and dark-green sweater. Jing Mei thought the look suited Laura, although her friend always dressed nicely on a daily basis.

"We're off!"

The girls arrived at the movie theater to find Gillian Beilschmidt tugging on Matthew William's sleeve as the blonde boy blushed. Erika Lupei and Daniel Héderváry were standing a little ways from the two, engaged in an intense staring match. Next to them, Arthur Kirkland and Nora Bondevik chatted amiably, seemingly blind to the battle of eye lasers between their friends. Xiang and Mari were there as well, hanging out by themselves as they watched everyone else with bored expressions. Yong Soo was surprisingly missing.

"Aunty and Uncle decided that he needed to improve on his grades. He's at home being drilled by Kang Dae," said Xiang with amusement when Jing Mei asked him. She smirked. They shared a conspiratorial look.

"Oy! C'mon! If you walk any slower, we're all going to miss the movie!"

Jing Mei turned around at the sound of Laura's voice. Chiara Vargas, Lars Jansen, and…

"Hey! Sorry! Totally unawesome Waldo has to babysit the Eyebrows' brother so he made me turn off the oven at his house 'cause he was baking some totally unawesome Swedish food! And like the totally awesome friend I am…"

"So I'm assuming neither Berwald nor Tina are coming then?" interrupted Nora. Everyone gave her a grateful look.

Anders grinned. "Nope! I bet they're be making out all over Artie's couch."

Arthur groaned. "Image, Densen, image. My favorite couch. My god! My favorite couch!"

Nora poked him. "We can sanitize it later, idiot."

Jing Mei had only been paying attention to half of what was going on. The moment Anders had appeared, the poor girl had nearly suffered a heart attack. No one had told her that Anders was coming. Of course, she had been idiotic enough to forget that he was Lar's (aka Laura's brother's) friend.

"Well, bastards? Are we or are we not going in to see this movie?"

Gillian flounced over the Chiara and latched her arm around the girl's shoulders.

"'Course we are, Tomato! Let the awesome me take you in!"

"Wa-wa-watch where you're going albino freak!"

The rest of the group sighed and followed them in. Jing Mei sighed; this was going to be a loooooong movie.

"Hey! What's your name? I don't think we've met before! Wanna sit together?"

A very looooooong movie.

She could already see Xiang and Mari smirking at her from the front of the group.

Suffice to say, Jing Mei was not grinning when they came out of the movie theater; however, Anders Densen thought that he had just made a new best friend.

* * *

><p>Saturday:<p>

Jing Mei, for once, did not sleep in on a Saturday morning. It was eight o'clock in the morning when she trudged downstairs to find Yao bustling around the kitchen.

"Sometimes I think you're like the housemaid, 哥哥," she remarked in amusement.

Yao glowered at her. "I do not appreciate that comparison."

Jing Mei ignored him and began to take out the bread form the fridge. She had just finished toasting her two slices when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," grumbled Yao, when she made no move towards the door.

Jing just grinned and became to spread strawberry jam on her bread.

"Aiyaaaaaah!"

Upon hearing her brother's scream, Jing Mei put down her breakfast and rushed to the door. The moment she saw the intruder, Jing Mei giggled.

"Yao-yao!" sang her brother's Russian stalker. "I've got a surprise for you!"

" Noooooo! Go away!"

Yao tried to close the door on her with no avail The girl pouted childishly, her hands crossed over her rather large assets.

"But Yao-yao!"

"Aaaaaaagggggh! Tanya! Go away!"

Jing Mei took this as the prime opportunity to slip away to her room. However, before she could sneak to the staircase, a new person had arrived at the door. Oh was it getting good. Jing Mei changed her mind and decided to watch the show from the fifth step of the staircase.

"Sestra."

Alexei Alfroskaya, Tanya Braginski's step-brother and obsessive stalker had also appeared on their doorstep. The lean, expressionless boy put a hand on his sister's shoulder causing her to flinch.

"A-a-a-a-a-alexei!"

"Sestra. We should get married. Married, married, married."

"Noooooo!"

And with that, Tanya sped away from their porch, dragging Yao with her.

Jing Mei sighed, and closed the door. It wasn't the first time an incident like this had happened. She suspected that Yao would be back by lunchtime. Anyhow, she figured she'd finish cooking it for him. Xiang was not a happy camper in the mornings; it was even worse if there was no food.

At that exact moment, her phone buzzed in her pocket.

_Hej stalker person. you a chick or a dude?_

Jing Mei wondered if there would ever be any peace in the Wang household.

* * *

><p>Sunday:<p>

Jing Mei wanted the weekday to start.

_hej!im bored. talk to me!_

Anders Densen, it seemed, was an idiot enough to be texting her nearly every waking hour. He was bored. Tina and Berwald were off in Wonderland, skipping along and sniffing the flowers like the happy couple they were. Nora and Arthur were performing some kind of voodoo magic. Mari just told him to piss off. Lars were hiding somewhere with Chiara. Gillian was eating pancakes with Matthew. Yong Soo was being disciplined by his brother Kang Dae.

All in all, Anders had nothing better to do than to text his stalker.

Jing Mei was annoyed.

Finally, she just turned off her phone. For the first time in twenty-six hours, she smiled. It was a good time to take a long, uninterrupted nap.

"Mei! Why wasn't your cell on? I needed to ask you what type of notebook you needed. But I couldn't reach you, so I didn't get them."

Jing Mei's eyes snapped open at the sound of her older brother's voice. It was five-o'clock in the afternoon.

"What do you mean, you didn't get them? I need them tomorrow!"

"Aiyah! Keep your phone on! And go get them yourself. You have your license now anyways.

Jing Mei groaned. Anders Densen was going to ruin her life.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: H****aha! Sorry about that filler chapter. The next chapter should also be a filler chapter, unfortunately. xD I'll try to get that up soon, but no guarantees. Life has decided to kick my butt lately, so I'm drowning in work. **

**And you guys probably know what "big brother" in Chinese is at this point.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Aaaaaah! It's been a while. Life, drama, and all that good stuff got to me. But it's ok now, so I have another update for you lovely, lovely people. And just as a note, I actually think that this fic might be coming to a end much faster than I thought. All the real drama starts the next chapter.**

**And just to clarify some things:**

**Eliisabet: fem!Estonia**

**Laura: Belgium**

**Erika: fem!Romania**

**Daniel: male!Hungary**

**Gillian: fem!Prussia**

**Lars: Netherlands**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 6: In Which An Awkward Week Passes By, pt 2<em>

Monday:

"Jing Mei, in which year was Germany technically united?"

Oh crap. Jing Mei had always been a little scatter-brained with dates, and she was currently drawing a blank.

"Er…1866?"

"No, although you are close. 1871, right after the Franco-Prussian war."

In the back, she could hear Gillian, their student aide for this period, cheering. Jing Mei had no idea how Gillian had persuaded Mr. M that she was capable of being his student aide for Advanced European History, but then again, it was European history and Prussia was brought up often. It was probably why Gillian had managed to pass the Advanced Examinations with a five out of five.

"So, continuing on. Who was the mastermind behind this plan, Jing Mei?"

"Otto von Bismarck," she answered quickly, hoping that her shrewd History teacher was done picking on her for the day. Boy was she wrong.

"What was his background?"

"He was a conservative Junker, but he was also very sly, cunning, and manipulative. He wanted to unite the German nation because he felt that a strong Germany could crush the rest of the world."

"Who was his Austrian counterpart? In some aspects, since they really didn't agree in most topics."

Was he purposely taking longer on her Socratic Dialogue? Sure, she'd been skipped over during the last two times because they had run out of time, but hey! He was definitely putting her on the spot for no reason at the moment. It wasn't like she was the only one who hadn't gone. Heracles, the sleeping wonder, hadn't gone either.

"Klemens von Metternich."

"Excellent. Now Heracles, what did Metternich oppose with great fervor?"

"Nationalism."

"Why?"

"He thought that it would tear Austria apart."

"How so?"

Having Heracles answer a Socratic Dialogue was possibly the most excruciating ordeal of the class. He would answer everything in one, concise sentence, causing their teacher to ask more and more questions until he was satisfied with the drowsy boy's performance.

Jing Mei doodled a little on her notebook. It was going to be a while before Heracles' turn was over.

Suddenly, Anders Densen bounded into their classroom with a note from the office. He looked as cheery and carefree as ever, grinning at all of the girls in the class. His gaze lingered a little longer on Jing Mei, but she quickly brushed it aside.

Mr. M quickly skimmed over Anders' note.

"Miss Wang. Office."

Anders grinned widely as Jing Mei gathered up her things and followed him out the door. Jing Mei attempted to ignore the obnoxious junior, but it was useless. He continued to blabber on and on and on about everything and anything. By the time they reached the office, Jing Mei realized she had never been so relieved to have arrived at the office.

* * *

><p>Tuesday:<p>

"Mei Mei!"

Jing Mei found herself being glomped by her hyperactive cousin as she attempted to scramble to her third period class. Yong Soo was gleefully hanging off her arms, having no regard for the fact that his cousin was desperately trying to run to the classroom halfway across the hall.

"Yong Soo, let go of me! I'm gonna be late for English!"

"But Mei Mei, I have something to tell you!"

The clock indicated that she had less than a minute to get to class. Out of complete and utter desperation, she burst out,  
>"Im Yong Soo, if you don't let go of me right now, I WILL tell the entire school about the time when you decided it would be a good idea to throw…"<p>

"Aaaaaah! Don't, don't, don't!" begged Yong Soo, immediately letting go of Jing Mei. Jing Mei quickly took this opportunity to dash into her classroom.

"Miss Wang, were you running in the hallways?" questioned her teacher as Jing Mei quickly scooted into her seat just as the bell rang.

"Uh, no?"

"Anyhow, welcome to class. Today, I am assigning you a new project. I was talking to Ms. Warnstein, and we have decided start a brand new project this year. Because the juniors in AP English may have forgotten some of the vocabulary, writing techniques, and literature of sophomore year – and because you sophomores need a little challenge – we have decided to pair up one junior and one sophomore from every period of AP English and Honors English in a large, multi-genre writing project with several requirements and many topics."

Eliisabet von Bock raised her hand. Jing Mei vaguely knew that Eliisabet was one of Tina's best friends and a complete master when it came to technology. The rather slim and poised-looking blonde girl seemed slightly anxious as she waited for Mrs. Benson to call on her.

"Yes, Miss von Bock?"

"Will we be able to choose our own partners?"

"I'm afraid not. We'll be pairing you up according to writing style, writing and reading strengths, and personality."

Another person raised a hand.

"Yes?"

"When will we be meeting our partners? And where?"

"We'll be going to juniors' classroom in room 117 tomorrow."

* * *

><p>Wednesday:<p>

"I hope Anders Densen is my partner," Eliisabet muttered for the hundredth time.

Jing Mei was getting slightly irritated with the shy-looking blonde girl beside her.

"Alright classes, it's time for us to announce the partners."

Jing Mei held her breath. She hoped she was paired with someone who was smart and would at least do the work. Maybe Matthew, as the quite Canadian boy was a good friend of hers. Luckily, he was in this particular class as well. Jing Mei was amused to note that Gillian Beilschmidt continuously flirted with Matthew, causing the boy to blush harder and harder. It was no surprise when Gillian grabbed Matthew by the shoulders and started making out with him passionately when they went to the movies. It had burned Jing Mei's retinas, but she was glad that the two had finally gotten together.

Next to Gillian sat Chiara Vargas, who glared at Lars, who sat in the seat next to her. Lars and Chiara had one of the most dysfunctional relationships Jing Mei had ever heard of, but hey, it worked for the two of them.

"Alright, here are the lists. When I call your name, please stand with your partner, and for the love of God, please remain quiet" Everyone nodded solemnly. "Then we may commence. Kiku Honda and Vash Zwingli."

Jing Mei grinned inwardly as her "cousin" walked over shyly to join Vash Zwingli, who nodded stiffly as he stood as well. The Japanese girl had had a small crush on the intimidating, foul-tempered blonde for a while.

"Chiara Vargas and Ludwig Beilschmidt."

Gillian laughed loudly as Chiara swore vehemently and demanded for a partner change. It was unsurprising, as Chiara was furious with Ludwig for dating her sister Alice.

"Chiara! You are almost an adult! Behave yourself!"

Chiara pouted as Lars patted her shoulder with a smirk. Ludwig stalked over to stand by her, although he looked incredibly uncomfortable and awkward.

"Katarzyna Łukasiewicz and Eliisabet Von Bock."

Eliisabet's face fell slightly, but she still walk over to stand by Katarzyna who glomped her and proclaimed, "Like dude, this is totes cool!"

"Jing Mei Wang and Anders Densen."

Jing Mei's eyes widened as she realized what Mrs. Benson had just said. Anders grinned at her merrily, as if he was ecstatic to be her partner. Eliisabet glared at her with such a degree of fury that Jing Mei wanted to hide in a tiny corner for the rest of her life.

"Jing Mei? Please go to stand next to Anders."

If looks could kill, Jing Mei had a feeling that she would have been murdered by half of the girls in her class ten times already.

"Jing Mei? Hej! This is awesome!"

"Anders! Quiet!"

* * *

><p>Wednesday After School:<p>

"So Mei…"

"I don't want to talk about it."

The trio was back in her room, on her bed again. Jing Mei sat slumped on the floor with her back against the desk as Yong Soo continued to grin. Xiang quirked an eyebrow in amusement as Mari continued to look annoyed.

"We have a better idea. We'll cancel the plan. Just be English partners with him and then we'll see what ends up happening."

Jing Mei raised her head to look at them. "Half of the girls in my English class really hate me now."

"Hey, at least they notice you now."

"Not funny, Xiang."

"I agree," echoed Mari, nudging Xiang. "Girls can be pretty awful."

"I think Eliisabet especially hates my guts."

Mari snorted. "She's an ex-girlfriend of Anders'. She dumped him, but in the past year, she's really starting to regret it."

"Ugh. They're having a girly talk. C'mon Xiang-muffin! Time for some male bonding with aniki Yao!"

Xiang shrugged and followed Yong Soo out the door, but not before giving his girlfriend a peck on the cheek.

"PDA," chorused Jing Mei and Yong Soo at the same time. The other two just rolled their eyes.

"So how do you feel about all of this anyways?" asked Mari after the boys had left. The platinum blonde had gotten off the bed and joined Jing Mei on the floor.

Jing Mei shrugged, twiddling her thumbs. "I really don't know. From what interaction I've had with him, I feel that he's really just too annoying. I don't even know what the three of you are really planning anyways."

Mari smiled, a genuine and sincere curve of the lips, and offered Jing Mei a hand as they got off from their seats on the floor. "You might be surprised by Anders."

"I certainly hope so. The texting thing's making me feel really guilty."

"Don't," advised Mari. "And actually enjoy yourself while you're doing this project. The rest of the girls suck anyways."

Mari was surprised when Jing Mei suddenly enveloped her into a hug.

"Thanks," came Jing Mei's muffled voice.

"Are you crying?"

"N-no."

"Good, those girls aren't worth crying over."

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><p><strong>AN: Yes, Anders is rather popular with the underclassmen girls. That's where some of the drama will be coming from, especially because the smarter ones can tell that Anders has a small thing for Jing Mei. **

**Hope you liked!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Yuuuuup. I haven't updated in a while. But APs suck, so it's not my fault. And after I take the exam, I'll have more free time to update! **

**And yes, this is starting to draw to an end. The climax should be about next chapter.**

**And just some personal advertisement, but I'm writing this Code Geass/Hetalia AU crossover. If you like Code Geass, please check it out. I'm also rewriting my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel attempting to a Hetalia fic, called The Citadel. That one should be the most frequently updated, since I have around 30,000 words written.**

**Anyhow, enjoy!**

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><p><em>Chapter 7: In Which Most Girls Are Jerks<em>

The next day, Jing Mei woke up at six thirty and got dressed in a pair of jeans and her favorite panda hoodie, just like any other day. Yao was already getting breakfast ready when she trudged down the stairs, feeling tired. Xiang was always the last to get up, so Jing Mei was not surprised when Xiang bolted down the stairs at top speed to grab some breakfast and run for the bus. She herself was already at the door, waiting for him. Yao had already taken the car to school, since he was the only one with an actual insurance policy.

The moment the twins got on the bus, the rumors started. The two girls sitting in front of Xiang and Mei gossiped loudly, not caring that both Xiang and Jing Mei could hear them very clearly.

"Like, oh my gosh, did you hear? That Asian girl totally snagged Anders for herself."

"I know! What a slut!"

"She's not even that good looking. What the hell?"

Jing Mei wanted to go back home and never come out again. Xiang noticed her withering expression and immediate confronted the two girls who had just been loudly gossiping about her. The girls shrank back in fear as Xiang approached them, his usually placid face blazing in anger.

"Please leave my sister alone," he said politely.

They nodded and remained silent for the rest of the trip. Jing Mei could not thank Xiang enough. He just snorted, brushing it off.

"Xiang-muffin! Mei Mei!"

"Since when did you ride the bus, Yong Soo?" asked Xiang irritably.

"Since Kang Dae won't drive me to school anymore."

"Don't you already have your driver's license?"

"Appa and Eomma refuse to buy me an insurance policy." (Korean: Dad and Mom)

"I wonder why," the twins replied in unison.

"Not cool!"

Amid the three's bickering, the bus had finally arrived at school, and the trio rushed to get off the bus. The moment they stepped into the school, the rumors started to fill the hallways once more. Jing Mei gritted her teeth in an attempt to keep a straight face, but the boys openly glowered and scowled at anyone and everyone who dared to say anything about their precious Mei Mei. Mari met up with them half-way to homeroom, and she glared at girls with even more intensity than Xiang and Yong Soo combined. In a way, Jing Mei was thankful for the support of the three, but at the same time, she just wanted to curl up with a cup of tea and hide in her room for the rest of her life.

"Hey, you!"

The group turned around to see a furious Eliisabet, pointing an accusatory finger at Jing Mei. Mari frowned, pulling on Xiang's arm in a subtle attempt to let him know that they should just walk away. Xiang understood, and he quietly placed a hand on Jing Mei's shoulder.

They were just turning to walk away when Ellisabet yelled, "I know your secret!"

Jing Mei froze immediately. The four of them turned to face Ellisabet once more. The blonde smirked, her eyes glinting with victory.

"If you don't demand for a partner change by the end of today, I will tell him."

With that, Eliisabet stomped away. Jing Mei's knees felt weak, and she couldn't hold the tears in any longer. She sprinted to the nearest people-free corner and started to sob. Xiang, Yong Soo, and Mari caught up with her almost immediately, and Yong Soo pulled her into a crushing hug. Jing Mei quietly accepted the comfort, letting her pent-up frustrations go.

"This is completely all our fault," mumbled Xiang. "If we hadn't dared you to text him, this wouldn't have gotten this bad."

"What I want to know is how she found out," raged Yong Soo. "None of us could have possible told her. We don't even know her that well."

"Tina," replied Mari quietly. "She's almost best friends with Eliisabet. Tina probably got really excited about the plan and told Eliisabet. There's no other possibility."

Speaking of the devil, Tina herself (along with Berwald), appeared at the very moment.

"Is something wrong?" she fretted, seeing Jing Mei's swollen eyes.

"Did you tell Eliisabet about the plan?"

Tina looked bewildered. "I don't think so? She might have been there when Berwald and I were discussing it, but I don't think so…Why? What's wrong?"

"She just threatened Jing Mei because of the English project."

Tina gasped. "Oh! Now I remember! She was there. I was too excited, and I completely forgot about how she dumped Anders, and…"

Mari sighed. "Now we really have a situation. The teachers absolutely refuse to change partners, and Eliisabet will tell Anders about what happened if Jing Mei doesn't get a partner switch."

Tina's face hardened. She turned to Berwald. "Ber-bear, can you make sure that Anders doesn't see or talk to Eliisabet at any point today?" The lumbering boy nodded. "Thank you, sweetie. Now, none of you worry. I'm going to have a few words with Eliisabet."

They nodded dumbly as Tina walked away, Berwald trailing her.

"Was that…?"

"Yes, that was an angry Tina."

"I hope I am never on the receiving side of that anger."

Jing Mei sniffled a little.

"You okay now?"

She nodded. The tears were gone, and she only felt embarrassed now. "Sorry about crying in front of all of you."

Xiang smacked her shoulder.

"Xiang-muffin!"

"Don't scare me like that again," was his only reply as he headed off to homeroom. Mari sighed.

"Boys," she snorted. She wrapped an arm around Jing Mei. "C'mon. Let's get you cleaned up and then we can go to homeroom."

"Is everything really going to be ok?" asked Jing Mei.

"Trust me, if you've ever seen Tina in a rage, then you know that it'll all be fine."

"I'm glad you're dating my brother."

"I'm glad you're his sister."

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><p><strong>AN: I'm sorry that I made Eliisabet such a monster, but it necessary. Someone had to be the jealous ex, and I chose Eliisabet for reasons that you will find out next chapter. **

**Awww…Mari is warming up to Jing Mei. =)**

**Lemme know what you think!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Muhahahaha. I think you'll like this chapter.**

**I think maybe one or two more chapters plus an epilogue? =)**

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><p><em>Chapter 8: In Which All Hell Officially Breaks Loose<em>

Jing Mei's first and second periods went somewhat smoothly, although some of the girls in those two classes weren't very happy with her anyways. They continuously shot her glowers, scowling whenever she dared to peek at them. Whispers were rampant before and after classes. At the very least, no one directly confronted her like Eliisabet did, and for that, Jing Mei was extremely thankful.

By the time third period rolled around, Jing Mei was beginning to feel slightly better. Tina could probably talk Eliisabet into letting Jing Mei go, and Tina could probably explain to Eliisabet that Jing Mei was not interested in Anders at all. Anders was a nice enough guy, even if he was super annoying. Jing Mei realized that she didn't really mind being English partners with him. As long as all of the other girls just left her alone, everything would be fine, right? She hoped it would be. Never in her life had she been the center of such negative attention. She hoped that she would never be again.

The moment Jing Mei walked into English, all of the preppy girls with crushes on Anders immediately started to glare at her. Jing Mei really wanted to quail under the intensity of their accusatory stares, but she put on a brave face. She couldn't afford to have another bawling fit, not now. Jing Mei refused to cry in front of Eliisabet, of all people, because it was the blonde girl who was causing her the most misery at the moment. The best she could do was to stay strong in front of the girl

The moment class started, the teacher asked for everyone's opinion on the project.

"We should be able to choose our own partners," replied Eliisabet stiffly, shooting a glare at Jing Mei. "At the very least, we need to switch up some of the partner pairings."

The teacher shook her head. "It's impossible, I'm afraid. We set up the partnerships for specific reasons, and we believe that they are the best possible pairings we could have come up with. Switching partners is out of the question."

Jing Mei's heart plummeted into her stomach at the realization of these words. Perhaps she had been hoping for some small miracle in this case. Now, it seemed hopeless.

On their way to the Juniors' classroom, Eliisabet sidled up to Jing Mei and hissed, "Meet me in the library after school."

Dread filled Jing Mei's stomach like the sand of an hourglass as she began to worry about what Eliisabet had in store. Was the blonde going to apologize? Would she agree to leave her alone? Did Tina talk Eliisabet into leaving Jing Mei alone? Jing Mei was frightened by the prospects of what Eliisabet might do, and she began to dread the end of the day.

English went by in a blur, although Jing Mei had to admit that she had been slightly amused by some of Anders's jokes. Unfortunately, the jokes did not take the edge off her incessant worrying. Anders noticed this, and commented on it.

"Hej, you see a little worried. Everything ok?"

"Yeah…I'm fine. What should we write about for this theme?"

"'Night?' Dunno. Day's way more awesome than night though."

"Why do you say that?"

Anders stared. "Are you kidding? Nothing happens at night! All everyone does is sleep, and that's so boring!"

Jing Mei was confused. "Why is sleeping so boring? Don't you even have interesting dreams?"

Anders blushed. "No. But I sleep-talk, which is totally unawesome."

"Hey! You once said that you thought my butt was awesome in your sleep!" yelled Gillian from halfway across the room.

"I did not!" Anders yelled back. "Totally unawesome!"

"You so did," supplied Lars. "I was there."

"Liars!" protested Anders. "Why would I say that about Gil?"

"You dated her for a week during freshman year, you numbskull," replied Chiara curtly.

The two teachers were conversing quietly in the corner, but at the sounds of off-task behavior, they quickly told the rowdy Juniors to be quiet.

"Anyways, what can we write about?" continued Jing Mei.

"Owls!"

"Owls?"

"Yeah! Like the ones that go 'hoot!' They're awesome!"

Jing Mei shrugged. "What about them?"

"An awesome adventure story about owls rescuing a mouse."

"Uh, you know that owls eat mice, right?"

"Exactly!"

Jing Mei did not understand how Anders' logic worked, but she did feel a little better.

* * *

><p>After school, Jing Mei made some excuses to her brothers and cousin and headed towards the library. Tiina had joyfully told Jing Mei at lunch that Eliisabet had promised to leave her alone, and everyone had thought the matter was resolved. Jing Mei had plastered a smile onto her face and pretended like the encounter with Eliisabet during third period hadn't happened.<p>

She had realized then that she couldn't rely on her friends to fight this battle for her. She would have to be the one who confronted Eliisabet on the matter. It was her own battle now, and she couldn't ask for help anymore.

Eliisabet was in the library already, typing placidly at an empty table near the entrance. No one else was in the library, so Jing Mei assumed that Eliisabet must have managed to bribe them into going away for a little bit.

"You're here," remarked Eliisabet, peering at Jing Mei over her laptop.

Jing Mei nodded, not knowing what to say.

"Good. Did you get the partner switch?"

Jing Mei shook her head, fear clenching her gut. "You know what the teachers said. It's impossible."

"You are such a bitch," scoffed Eliisabet. "Did you or did you not prank text Anders Densen?"

Jing Mei's palms started sweating. She could deny having done any such thing. She could get of scoot-free! She could convince Eliisabet to leave her alone. She could finally end this large mess with one last, little lie. Everything could turn out fine.

Instead, she nodded slowly, and lowered her eyes. "Yes…But…Look, it was a dare. My cousin and my brother blackmailed me into doing it. I didn't want to!"

"How quaint. Did they insist that you creeper text him as well? How crude."

"No…They just told me to be creative." She paused to pick at a finger to stop her overactive brain from exploding. "What will it take for you to leave me alone? What have I done to you?"

"Jing Mei?"

Jing Mei turned around to see a confused Anders Densen at the library door. Her jaw dropped as she realized that he must have heard the entire conversation.

Eliisabet smirked. "I just want my boyfriend back."

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><p><strong>AN: Was that a cliffhanger I ended you on? Why yes, indeed. =D**

**Trust me, it'll be worth the wait. I'm weighing two options of how to continue the story. =)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Well, my dear, dear readers, this is the very last chapter! I know, it's a very emotional thing for me too. There will be an epilogue after this, and I think it will probably end up being a two part epilogue. The ending of this story marks the end of another chapter in my own life, because I started this story at the beginning of the school year, and I'm going to finish it a little after the end of the school year. **

**So, the acknowledgements will officially be in the last part of the epilogue, but I really really want to thank all of you lovely readers, alerters, and reviewers. You guys have kept me going during my rough patches, so THANK YOU.**

**And without further ado, please enjoy the last real chapter of It Start With A Text.**

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><p><em>Chapter 9: In Which Life Cannot Get Any Better<em>

Jing Mei couldn't breathe. The room suddenly seemed much too small. The walls seemed to be closing down on her as Anders walked to stand three feet away from her. His face had become even paler than his usual fair complexion. Eliisbet grinned manically as she sauntered up to Anders, batting her eyelashes.

"Now you know the truth, Anders, sweetie. How does that feel? Doesn't it feel nice to know that people around you have been betraying you? Do you know how many people have been betraying you lately?"

Anders stood there dumbly, staring at Jing Mei. Jing Mei suddenly felt the urge to say something, anything to stop Eliisabet from talking. She wanted so badly to make herself clear, to assert herself. The doubting voice in her head continuously tried to tell her that there was nothing that she could do now. Jing Mei wanted to stop being the nervous, scared little girl very much at that instant. She wanted to stop relying on other people. It was just so hard, watching Eliisabet tearing her reputation and character to sheds as she stood helpless as a gaping fish.

"I…I want to hear the truth from Jing Mei."

Jing Mei stared at Anders after his outburst. He stared back. Eliisabet chuckled, and shook her finger at him.

"Now, now. Not so hasty. How about some good, solid testimony from the others around you?"

Eliisabet swayed back to her laptop and clicked on a few items. Suddenly. Tiina's voice came out of the speakers.

"_It's the perfect plan! Ber-Bear already gave Jing Mei some good tidbits. I'm hoping she'll put them to good use."_

_ "I'm excited! Xiang, you are such a genius! This will scare Anders to death"_

_ "Here, I have some good ideas too. The Danish idiot is going to freak out even more than before. This is the best show I've seen in ages."_

_ "Are you wankers bloody sure this won't affect him? The giant loon looks like he might have a heart attack any day now." _

"_Pffft. Anders deserves this. I'll consider this revenge from the time when he hung up my toy puffin in the tree."_

As the voices died away, Anders' stare had become increasingly depressed. Jing Mei wanted to give him a hug, like the ones that she used to give to Xiang when the other kids bullied him.

"Can't you see how your 'so-called,' friends are treating you?" simpered Eliisabet. "I could treat you so much better. Why don't you take me back? You know that I'll be such a better friend."

Suddenly, Jing Mei realized that something was wrong with those recordings. She couldn't place exactly what, but there was definitely something wrong with them. Was it Tiina's recording? Or was it Arthurs?

"I-I-"

"Yes?"

"I think-"

"That's a lie! The recordings are a lie!" burst out Jing Mei, interrupting Anders. The two blondes stared at her, one with anger and the other with confusion.

"What, pray tell, is wrong with the recordings?" asked Ellisabet icily.

"They're faked," replied Jing Mei with confidence. "They are definitely faked."

"How can you even prove that?" scoffed Eliisabet. "You can't prove that they're faked. They sound completely authentic."

"Mari hardly ever calls Anders by name. She likes to call him insults, because she's still mad at Anders for dating Nora. Nora would never say anything that sounds that excited. They would never intentionally hurt Anders in any real way. Harmless pranks, maybe, but they would never do anything that would genuinely hurt him. None of these people would ever do anything to intentionally hurt him."

"That's not good enough," taunted Eliisabet.

This time, Jing Mei smirked at her. "Yong Soo never calls Xiang anything but 'Xiang-muffin' or whatever other ridiculous nicknames he can come up with. And he will never say 'I'm excited.' Whenever he's excited, he lets out a Korean exclamation. I think I would know my own cousin well enough to know how he talks."

Eliisabet's shocked face was enough affirmation for Jing Mei to know that the blonde had set all of them up. She snuck a glance at Anders, only to see that his expression had now morphed into one of completely angers. A sigh of relief escape her lips as she realized that her part was done.

"You lied to me," said Anders quietly, glaring at Eliisabet. "You know how much I hate being lied to. That's why I was so devastated when you dumped me. You lied to me about cheating on with Toris when I first confronted you about it."

"I-I-I-"

"Why would you try to lie to me about my friends turning against me? You should know how scared I am that my friends are all going to abandon me."

"Let me-"

"You should know how hard it is for me to even think that my friends are all laughing at me behind my back. You should know how much I worry about what people say about me when I'm not there. You should know me well enough to know how much this would hurt me."

"An-an-anders, please, just-"

"WHY?" yelled Anders. "WHY would you DO THIS to ME?"

"I WANT YOU BACK!" screamed Eliisabet. "Dumping you was the worst mistake of my life! I just want you back! You never talked me to after we broke up!"

"I think," interjected Jing Mei, "Setting all of this up was the worst mistake of your life."

"I hate you," whispered Anders softly. "I never want to see or talk to you again."

Eliisabet ran from the rooming, sobbing hysterically at those words. Jing Mei and Anders stood in silence as she ran away.

"So…" mumbled Jing Mei after a long, awkward silence.

Anders laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"What isn't? Everything that's happened that has happened since the first day that you prank-texted me has been a roller coaster."

"Sorry about that."

He shrugged. "Now that I look back at it, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all. After all, I got to know you better." He paused to grin at her. "So can you tell me the story? From the very start? The real story? No more lies?"  
>"Why not?"<p>

And so she did. From the very start, with no more lies and only the truth. And maybe they even talked a little more after that.

But that's all history.

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><p><strong>AN: Oh man, I hope that that wasn't too lame of an ending. **

**So I hope you ended this ending! I'll be writing a two-part epilogue for this story soon, so expect a little after story for everyone who had been involved in the prank. =P**

**Review! We're close to the end, and I'd really love to know how you feel about this story.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Before we dive in, PLEASE READ THE FIRST PART OF THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE.**

**I have a tumblr at winterlake 25 . tumblr , and I posted about my fanfiction situation there. I would very greatly appreciate if you would go over the respond to that post, whether anonymously or otherwise. I'd really like to get feedback, because that is the only way I can improve my writing, my plots, and come up with better stories. Reviewing here will do the same. Of course, you don't have to, but I would really appreciate it. **

**Here you have it! The first part of the epilogue! It's pretty short, but it's because I really feel that the next part needs to have a chapter of its own. **

**So enjoy this little update!**

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><p><em>Epilogue Part 1: In Which Another Situation is Successfully Dealt With<em>

_Some Time Later:_

"…And then Gillian was totally unawesome and left me to make out with that Matt kid, and Yong Soo said he had to do something with breasts, and…"

Jing Mei listened to Anders' whining half-heartedly as they continued to work on their English project at her house. Or rather, she was doing her share of the work, and Anders was slacking off.

"…So you're the only person who can come with me!" he finished dramatically.

"Come to what?" asked Jing Mei, distracted by her work. Her fingers continued to tap methodically against the keyboard as she typed out an appropriate response to the current prompt they were working on.

"The movies!" exclaimed Anders. "'The Avengers' is coming out! But no one will see it with me."

Jing Mei sighed. Ever since the incident with Eliisabet had died down, everyone around her had subtly (and not so subtly) implied that Anders was more than just a little interested in her. Her twin had (many times, in fact) snarkily told her that it was high time that she hooked up with the loud and obnoxious blonde. Mari echoed his thought, and she was every snarkier than Xiang. If it was even possible, Nora was even more snarky than the two combined when it came to the matter. Arthur didn't know what to do with his girlfriend, as she plotted and snarked even more than usual. Mari had once teased Nora that she was probably pregnant with Arthur's child; Nora had replied with a completely impassive face that she would not be surprised if she was. After that, Mari had shut up about the matter.

Tina and Berwald were not excluded from that as well. Tina frequently came up with reasons for Jing Mei to help her out with something, only to have Anders show up, having been told the exact same thing. Berwald's intimidating stare seemed to indicate that he was in on the loop as well. The tall Scandinavian never said much, but Jing Mei knew that he knew much more than he ever let on.

Yong Soo and Gillian were the worst, in Jing Mei's opinion. Yong Soo always loudly proclaimed about how "absolutely adorable" it would be if his "little Mei Mei" got herself a "tall, dashing man," and how "dear cousin Yong Soo" knew just the perfect person for her. If Jing Mei bonked his head with a book, then he would say that she could do that to her boyfriend once she got one. Gillian utilized the same techniques on the completely oblivious and confused Anders, who only took her works in good jest. It was always amusing to see an embarrassed Matthew tugging Gillian away from Anders when she got over excited.

"So can you come?" asked Anders excitedly.

Jing Mei rubbed her temples as an impending headache threatened to rack her brains. It seemed that she really had no choice.

"Only if we can finish this project by the end of this weekend. I refuse to cram. It's due on Wednesday!"

Jing Mei almost wished that she had not said those words, as Anders dove right into working, scattering papers everywhere.

"Ok! How about we finish this prompt?"

Ok, maybe she was secretly pleased with her own cleverness concerning the matter. She really couldn't deny that it was relaxing to have Anders working instead of talking, for once. Anders, on the other hand, just really wanted to go to the movies with Jing Mei. Either way, both of them were happy, and they could both live with that.

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><p><strong>AN: Obviously, the movies are the next chapter. =D **

**Review, my lovelies! **


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